Copy and paste this worksheet as a separate page linked to the Homepage of your portfolio. DO NOT type your answers on THIS document because it needs to be used by other students. The title of your page which replies to these questions is linked to your portfolio and should begin with the first initials of your first and last name. (In my case, the link to this worksheet from my portfolio page would read frtrifles.)
You may earn a maximum of 3 points toward your final grade by doing the above and answering the questions and submitting them on time (no later than Friday, August, 25). Any worksheets submitted after the deadline will get a 0.
You will be rewarded a maximum of 3 points if I judge your work to be above average. You will receive 2 points if your work is average, that is it may have a few minor mistakes in some of the answers but demonstrates correct grammar and indicates that some, but not all, of the answers, are acceptable and well expressed. You will earn only 1 point if you simply answered the questions and/or if you use poor grammar and if there are signs that you have not read the material on which your answers are based.
1. In the space below, describe the stasis at the beginning of Trifles. In other words, “Where are we?” “When is it (time, day, and year)?” “Who are the people involved?” “What is the dramatic situation in which the characters find themselves as the play unfolds?”
The stasis of Susan Glaspell’s Trifles can be described in the very beginning as an undisturbed and deserted farmhouse off the road in a hollow, in the year 1916. The home belongs to a deceased John Wright and his wife, now widower and murder suspect, Mrs. Wright. The ‘dramatic situation,’ that these characters face is more of a question as to who did the crime. The County Attorney believes that Ms. Wright is the clear killer, but needs to find motive behind why she did the crime. As he and the Sheriff search for clues, the two women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, seem to uncover the motive on their own despite being brought to take some clothes to Mrs. Wright, while the men are completely unaware.
2. What is the intrusion that causes the stasis to be broken and the dramatic action to develop, often at an increasingly rapid pace, to the end of the play?
The intrusion of the stasis is the dead bird that Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale find in the box. Finding the bird allows the two of them to easily put two and two together and realize that there was much more going on inside the cold home than either Mr. or Mrs. Wright would lead on to. The two women then understand that Mrs. Wright did in fact kill her husband, but they also understand why she did it. They come to the understanding based on the dead bird that Mrs. Wright had enough with her husband and broke his neck the way he broke her bird’s and ultimately herself.
3. Why do the events of the play take place at this particular time and place? In other words, what is the unique factor which is out of the ordinary that causes a turn of events to take place? The unique factor of the play which causes the turn of events to take place is the moment Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find the dead bird in the box. What’s unique about this moment, and also pertaining to why it takes place in this particular place and time is the fact that the women find the main motive behind Mr. Wright’s death. In the time period, men and women were not seen as equal, this being four years before women even got the right to vote. The County Attorney even said that women often worried themselves with “trifles” and left them to get Mrs. Wright’s apron. The men paid no mind to the women and thought that whatever they were doing downstairs was of little importance, when the fact was that one of the most crucial moments of the play happen between Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale.
4. State the dramatic questions that must be answered by the end of the play? (Ordinarily, the dramatic question shares a close connection with the intrusion.) Dramatic questions that must be answered by the end of the play are: Will the Sheriff and the County Attorney learn why Mrs.Wright killed her husband? Will Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale find something that uncovers what exactly happened in the Wright home? Why did Mrs. Wright have a birdcage and a dead bird?
5. Use Ms. Hale to answer the questions concerning character. Ball says, a character is revealed by what he/she does, ie. The dramatic actions that are taken. Examine what the character wants (NOTE: In Trifles the wants of Ms. Hale change as the play progresses). The wants of a character often encounter obstacles that get in the way of achieving those wants. Ball says there are 4 kinds of obstacles that frustrate the wants of a character. They are: a. Me against myself, b. Me against another individual, c. Me against society (that is law, social norms, etc.) and, d. Me against fate, the universe, natural forces, God or the gods. In answering these questions be sure to point to the particular obstacles that demonstrate these obstacles. In the beginning of the play, Mrs. Hale is indifferent to the scene and in her heart believes that Mrs. Wright did not kill her husband. She subliminally faces off with the County Attorney in a ‘me against another individual’ as well as a ‘me against society’ (the unequal view of the sexes in 1916) conflict when he makes a statement about the home being dirty and about Mrs. Wright’s ‘homemaking’ skills. She defends Mrs. Wright, and later even admits to thinking that she did not kill her husband. Mrs. Hale then exhibits an internal conflict (me against myself) when she admits to wishing that she had come over the home before all of this happened. Mostly, Mrs. Hale seems to want Mrs. Wright’s name cleared. When she realizes that Mrs. Wright did in fact kill her husband, she then understands why. She puts it together that Mrs. Wright was in a relationship she could not get out of and killed her husband once she finally snapped. During the realization, there is a ‘me against society’ conflict in which she states that she understands how hard like can be for women in their day in time. 6. The most important information in most plays takes place during theatrical moments. Identify the most theatrical moments in Trifles. The most theatrical moments of Trifles are those in which Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find the broken birdcage, and then the dead bird. It is in those moments when they understand that Mrs. Wright did kill her husband, and they understand why. The audience is able to paint the picture of a tired Mrs. Wright finally cracking under pressure after her husband snaps her bird’s neck, that bird either symbolizing her or being her outlet from a loveless marriage. She then snaps her husband’s neck after reaching her breaking point. The motive is seen much clearer as the puzzle pieces, such as Mrs. Wright’s dead husband, her nonchalance towards his death, the bird, and the birdcage come together.
7. Provide at least three examples of images in Trifles. How does the title of the play help us understand the images in the play? (Remember Ball says that, “An image is the use of something we know that tells us something we don’t know.” He goes on to say that images invoke and expand, rather than define and limit.”) Images in Trifles include the birdcage, the dead bird, and the cold, abandoned home. The image of the roughened birdcage allows the audience to understand that there was a force exerted on it during a hectic moment in the Wright household. The dead bird is a strong image in showing that something indirectly happened to Minnie Foster, the one who bought the bird in an opportunity to gain at least one outlet from her life. The abandoned and cold home convey the idea that this was the habitat Mrs. Wright was living in. Her home had long become a place of loneliness and even sadness, deprived of any life and thus left to wither, just like herself. The title, Trifles, allows the audience to understand that almost everything in the home has a separate meaning than its original definition. It was the ‘trifles’ that lead to Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale recognizing the motive in the first place.
8. Ordinarily, there are many themes in most plays. List the themes in Trifles. Themes in Trifles include loneliness, abuse, and even the view of society. Loneliness is a theme in the play since it regards what Mrs. Wright was probably feeling in her “home.” The theme of abuse can be seen when Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale find the rattled birdcage and the dead bird. They understand that there was some sort of force put on the bird, but it was meant to hurt Minnie Foster, not the bird. The way Mr. Wright died as well as Mrs. Wright’s calm attitude refers to the idea that abuse is what led to his death, more specifically, his abuse on his wife. Society takes a theme in the play as a sort of way to look itself in the mirror. The societal theme allows an insight into how culture in the early nineteen hundreds viewed equality between sexes. Even when Mrs. Hale had a miniature “face-off” with the County Attorney, it still attributed to the theme of societal views on men and women.
9. Most American plays have something to do with family and/or family relationships. What does family have to do with Trifles? The concept of family seen in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles takes an eerie turn when conveying it’s importance. The weight of family relations is heavy despite the quantity of that family, and in Mrs. Wright’s home, the relationship she shared with her husband was strained. The home is not a “cheerful” place, as described by Mrs. Hale. Even in the beginning, the setting is seen to be dark and eerily empty, with dirty dishes and food still sitting out. “Hale,” the witness to the aftermath of the crime, describes Mrs. Wright to be oddly calm, or nonchalant about the fact that her husband is dead, and she just killed him. The seemingly hollow woman described there seems different from the musical Minnie Foster Mrs. Hale described. Learning later that Mr. Wright could be described as a “raw wind,” provides that at some point in layman's terms, they did not get along. Minnie was living in a “cold” home so to speak, and she lost herself in a loveless marriage.The end result was death and the dark undertone of a broken relationship.
1.2
Feminist theater virtually began in the nineteen hundreds as a way to get the point of equality out through literature. The feminist theater movement was meant to give women in the nineteen hundreds a voice and an outlet to really “play” with the gender roles and societal views on gender equality. The movement became a way to test societal “norms” and allow a light to be shined on women, although the diversity of the women in the movement was limited. Trifles can be designated as Feminist theatre because of its message underneath the plot of the play. The women of Trifles, “Mrs. Peters,” and “Mrs. Hale,” uncover something the men seemingly cannot find, and altogether have their own plans for what it is they find without the men even knowing. The play reveals the societal view of gender equality in that time period and just how unbalanced it was.
You may earn a maximum of 3 points toward your final grade by doing the above and answering the questions and submitting them on time (no later than Friday, August, 25). Any worksheets submitted after the deadline will get a 0.
You will be rewarded a maximum of 3 points if I judge your work to be above average. You will receive 2 points if your work is average, that is it may have a few minor mistakes in some of the answers but demonstrates correct grammar and indicates that some, but not all, of the answers, are acceptable and well expressed. You will earn only 1 point if you simply answered the questions and/or if you use poor grammar and if there are signs that you have not read the material on which your answers are based.
1. In the space below, describe the stasis at the beginning of Trifles. In other words, “Where are we?” “When is it (time, day, and year)?” “Who are the people involved?” “What is the dramatic situation in which the characters find themselves as the play unfolds?”
The stasis of Susan Glaspell’s Trifles can be described in the very beginning as an undisturbed and deserted farmhouse off the road in a hollow, in the year 1916. The home belongs to a deceased John Wright and his wife, now widower and murder suspect, Mrs. Wright. The ‘dramatic situation,’ that these characters face is more of a question as to who did the crime. The County Attorney believes that Ms. Wright is the clear killer, but needs to find motive behind why she did the crime. As he and the Sheriff search for clues, the two women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, seem to uncover the motive on their own despite being brought to take some clothes to Mrs. Wright, while the men are completely unaware.
2. What is the intrusion that causes the stasis to be broken and the dramatic action to develop, often at an increasingly rapid pace, to the end of the play?
The intrusion of the stasis is the dead bird that Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale find in the box. Finding the bird allows the two of them to easily put two and two together and realize that there was much more going on inside the cold home than either Mr. or Mrs. Wright would lead on to. The two women then understand that Mrs. Wright did in fact kill her husband, but they also understand why she did it. They come to the understanding based on the dead bird that Mrs. Wright had enough with her husband and broke his neck the way he broke her bird’s and ultimately herself.
3. Why do the events of the play take place at this particular time and place? In other words, what is the unique factor which is out of the ordinary that causes a turn of events to take place?
The unique factor of the play which causes the turn of events to take place is the moment Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find the dead bird in the box. What’s unique about this moment, and also pertaining to why it takes place in this particular place and time is the fact that the women find the main motive behind Mr. Wright’s death. In the time period, men and women were not seen as equal, this being four years before women even got the right to vote. The County Attorney even said that women often worried themselves with “trifles” and left them to get Mrs. Wright’s apron. The men paid no mind to the women and thought that whatever they were doing downstairs was of little importance, when the fact was that one of the most crucial moments of the play happen between Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale.
4. State the dramatic questions that must be answered by the end of the play? (Ordinarily, the dramatic question shares a close connection with the intrusion.)
Dramatic questions that must be answered by the end of the play are:
Will the Sheriff and the County Attorney learn why Mrs.Wright killed her husband? Will Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale find something that uncovers what exactly happened in the Wright home? Why did Mrs. Wright have a birdcage and a dead bird?
5. Use Ms. Hale to answer the questions concerning character. Ball says, a character is revealed by what he/she does, ie. The dramatic actions that are taken. Examine what the character wants (NOTE: In Trifles the wants of Ms. Hale change as the play progresses). The wants of a character often encounter obstacles that get in the way of achieving those wants. Ball says there are 4 kinds of obstacles that frustrate the wants of a character. They are: a. Me against myself, b. Me against another individual, c. Me against society (that is law, social norms, etc.) and, d. Me against fate, the universe, natural forces, God or the gods. In answering these questions be sure to point to the particular obstacles that demonstrate these obstacles.
In the beginning of the play, Mrs. Hale is indifferent to the scene and in her heart believes that Mrs. Wright did not kill her husband. She subliminally faces off with the County Attorney in a ‘me against another individual’ as well as a ‘me against society’ (the unequal view of the sexes in 1916) conflict when he makes a statement about the home being dirty and about Mrs. Wright’s ‘homemaking’ skills. She defends Mrs. Wright, and later even admits to thinking that she did not kill her husband. Mrs. Hale then exhibits an internal conflict (me against myself) when she admits to wishing that she had come over the home before all of this happened. Mostly, Mrs. Hale seems to want Mrs. Wright’s name cleared. When she realizes that Mrs. Wright did in fact kill her husband, she then understands why. She puts it together that Mrs. Wright was in a relationship she could not get out of and killed her husband once she finally snapped. During the realization, there is a ‘me against society’ conflict in which she states that she understands how hard like can be for women in their day in time.
6. The most important information in most plays takes place during theatrical moments. Identify the most theatrical moments in Trifles.
The most theatrical moments of Trifles are those in which Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find the broken birdcage, and then the dead bird. It is in those moments when they understand that Mrs. Wright did kill her husband, and they understand why. The audience is able to paint the picture of a tired Mrs. Wright finally cracking under pressure after her husband snaps her bird’s neck, that bird either symbolizing her or being her outlet from a loveless marriage. She then snaps her husband’s neck after reaching her breaking point. The motive is seen much clearer as the puzzle pieces, such as Mrs. Wright’s dead husband, her nonchalance towards his death, the bird, and the birdcage come together.
7. Provide at least three examples of images in Trifles. How does the title of the play help us understand the images in the play? (Remember Ball says that, “An image is the use of something we know that tells us something we don’t know.” He goes on to say that images invoke and expand, rather than define and limit.”)
Images in Trifles include the birdcage, the dead bird, and the cold, abandoned home. The image of the roughened birdcage allows the audience to understand that there was a force exerted on it during a hectic moment in the Wright household. The dead bird is a strong image in showing that something indirectly happened to Minnie Foster, the one who bought the bird in an opportunity to gain at least one outlet from her life. The abandoned and cold home convey the idea that this was the habitat Mrs. Wright was living in. Her home had long become a place of loneliness and even sadness, deprived of any life and thus left to wither, just like herself. The title, Trifles, allows the audience to understand that almost everything in the home has a separate meaning than its original definition. It was the ‘trifles’ that lead to Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale recognizing the motive in the first place.
8. Ordinarily, there are many themes in most plays. List the themes in Trifles.
Themes in Trifles include loneliness, abuse, and even the view of society. Loneliness is a theme in the play since it regards what Mrs. Wright was probably feeling in her “home.” The theme of abuse can be seen when Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale find the rattled birdcage and the dead bird. They understand that there was some sort of force put on the bird, but it was meant to hurt Minnie Foster, not the bird. The way Mr. Wright died as well as Mrs. Wright’s calm attitude refers to the idea that abuse is what led to his death, more specifically, his abuse on his wife. Society takes a theme in the play as a sort of way to look itself in the mirror. The societal theme allows an insight into how culture in the early nineteen hundreds viewed equality between sexes. Even when Mrs. Hale had a miniature “face-off” with the County Attorney, it still attributed to the theme of societal views on men and women.
9. Most American plays have something to do with family and/or family relationships. What does family have to do with Trifles?
The concept of family seen in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles takes an eerie turn when conveying it’s importance. The weight of family relations is heavy despite the quantity of that family, and in Mrs. Wright’s home, the relationship she shared with her husband was strained. The home is not a “cheerful” place, as described by Mrs. Hale. Even in the beginning, the setting is seen to be dark and eerily empty, with dirty dishes and food still sitting out. “Hale,” the witness to the aftermath of the crime, describes Mrs. Wright to be oddly calm, or nonchalant about the fact that her husband is dead, and she just killed him. The seemingly hollow woman described there seems different from the musical Minnie Foster Mrs. Hale described. Learning later that Mr. Wright could be described as a “raw wind,” provides that at some point in layman's terms, they did not get along. Minnie was living in a “cold” home so to speak, and she lost herself in a loveless marriage.The end result was death and the dark undertone of a broken relationship.
1.2
Feminist theater virtually began in the nineteen hundreds as a way to get the point of equality out through literature. The feminist theater movement was meant to give women in the nineteen hundreds a voice and an outlet to really “play” with the gender roles and societal views on gender equality. The movement became a way to test societal “norms” and allow a light to be shined on women, although the diversity of the women in the movement was limited. Trifles can be designated as Feminist theatre because of its message underneath the plot of the play. The women of Trifles, “Mrs. Peters,” and “Mrs. Hale,” uncover something the men seemingly cannot find, and altogether have their own plans for what it is they find without the men even knowing. The play reveals the societal view of gender equality in that time period and just how unbalanced it was.